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James Myburgh on what the Trayvon Martin case says about the US media and judicial systems

Introduction

Last month's not guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman on second degree murder and manslaughter charges for the killing of the black 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, in Sanford, Florida, on February 26 last year, has provoked a flurry of discussion in the US mainstream media on the issues of racial profiling and Stand Your Ground laws (which remove the duty to retreat in self-defence cases.) President Barack Obama even weighed in again on the case stating that Martin "could have been me 35 years ago" while calling for the problem of racial profiling of black Americans in the US to be recognised and addressed and Stand Your Ground Laws re-examined.

Somewhat awkwardly, however, neither were ultimately key issues in the case. Zimmerman's defence rested on a pure self-defence claim (he was not in a position to retreat when he shot Martin), while the prosecution, much as they would have liked to, could produce no evidence of racial profiling or bias on Zimmerman's part.

The question this raises is why the US political and media elites are so determined to link the Zimmerman acquittal to these racially-infused issues, though they turned out to be effectively irrelevant to the case? One possible answer is, perhaps, that it is a way of avoiding through misdirection having to face up to certain hard questions the trial raised about their own conduct.

Following the verdict Zimmerman's two lawyers - Don West and Mark O'Mara - held a press conference. West commented that the verdict prevented the tragedy of Trayvon Martin's death from becoming a travesty of justice. O'Mara was asked by a reporter whether his client had ever cried or shown emotion. He noted in reply that Zimmerman had been turned into the "most hated man in America" (as some had called him) for having defended his own life. He had also been a great believer in a justice system that he had always wanted to be part of, either as a cop or a prosecutor. O'Mara continued:

"Two systems went against George Zimmerman that he can't understand: You guys, the media. He was like a patient in an operating table where mad-scientists were committing experiments on him and he had no anaesthesia. He didn't know why he was turned into this monster but quite honestly, you guys had a lot to do with it. You just did because you took a story that was fed to you, and you ran with it, and you ran right over him. And that was horrid to him.

Then he comes into a system that he trusts. Let's not forget, six voluntary statements, voluntary surrender, and he believes in the system that he really wanted to be part of... right? And then he gets prosecutors that charge him with a crime they could never ever prove. They didn't lose evidence along the way... right? So, I don't think anyone would argue with me in this room that they had evidence of second degree murder. This, in your heart kind of stuff [prosecutors asked the jury to ‘look into their hearts' rather than at the evidence when deciding the verdict during closing arguments], is not what we're supposed to do and not what they are supposed to do. So those two systems failed him."

This challenge, though reported on, has provoked very little serious introspection by the mainstream media in the US. This is a pity, for if O'Mara is right about how those two systems failed Zimmerman, they will sooner or later fail others - with possibly more deadly results.

This article then will trace the evolution of the controversy over the shooting death of Trayvon Martin and the way information was presented (or "fed") to the press, and measure it against what we now know. It will then go on to discuss what this case says about the "two systems" that sought to have George Zimmerman arrested, tried and sent to jail for life....

...It later turned out that George Zimmerman was neither white nor racially-minded. Indeed, he was something of a poster-child for post-racial America. His mother was Peruvian and of mixed racial ancestry (including black African ancestry). His father was a white American. He was fluent in both Spanish and English. He grew up in a completely multi-racial family environment, had black foster-siblings as a child, took a black girl to the prom, had close black friends and mentored two black children from the ghetto along with his wife. The FBI interviews of over 30 of his colleagues and acquaintances could find no evidence of anti-black prejudice or stereotyping.

He had been arrested in 2005 after, according to his version, he went to the aid of a friend in the bar who was being accosted by someone in civilian dress. It turned out that person was an undercover drug and alcohol agent and he was promptly arrested. The charges were later reduced to nothing after he agreed to undergo a pre-trial diversion programme. He had helped initiate, and went on to be duly appointed as co-ordinator for, the neighbourhood watch programme at the Retreat at Twin Lakes. This was after a spate of burglaries, and one home invasion, mostly by young black males. His ex-fiancée - with whom he had had an acrimonious relationship that ended in both taking out restraining orders against the other - told the FBI that Zimmerman "was not the type of person to place himself in a physical confrontation." In the trial he was described as "meek" by the Sanford Police's neighbour watch organiser, Wendy Dorival, and "physically soft" by his gym instructor Adam Pollock.

The picture of Trayvon Martin, presented by the Martin team, in March 2012, has subsequently been proven to be highly misleading; in one respect literally so. The photograph of Martin in a Hollister shirt was of when he was, according to one article, twelve years old. The first tranche of images released by Martin's family, all of a much younger Trayvon, appear to have tainted a number of witnesses' testimony. Martin was not a "little boy" on February 26 2012. He was over 6 foot and weighed over 158lbs.

For many boys making the transition from adolescence to successful adulthood can be a treacherous game of snakes and ladders. It is now apparent that, whatever his earlier promise, Trayvon Martin was on a rapid downward slide at the time his path intersected with that of Zimmerman's. According to a sympathetic profile in Esquire he had failed the FCAT, the Florida standardised test that he needed in order to graduate and progress on to college. He had also "missed fifty-three days of school between August and February." He regularly smoked marijuana, had an interest in street fighting and, it seems, was involved in petty criminality as well. This was reflected in his three suspensions from school in the four months leading up to February 26.

The first of these occurred on October 20 2011 after Trayvon Martin was observed by the principal Francisco Garnica on the school's CCTV camera system in "an unauthorised area (3122 hallway) hiding and being suspicious". As Martin exited the hallway door he was seen writing on it. "Upon reading the graffiti it read W.T.F (what the fuck)." The following day Garnica found Martin, who was known to him, and looked for the marker in the bag. "There he discovered numerous women's jewelry and a large screwdriver (burglary tool)." Miami Dade School Resource Officer Darryl Dunn was called. "When asked did the items belong to his mother, family members or girlfriend Martin replied it's not mine. A friend gave it to me. Martin declined to give his friends name." Martin was "suspended, warned and dismissed for the graffiti." The various items of jewelry and the burglary tool were impounded. However, they were listed as "found" not "stolen" property as, it appears, the Miami-Dade School Police Department were under pressure to keep crime statistics down. As a result the case was buried within the school disciplinary system and not subjected to criminal investigation (or linked to any recent burglaries in the area).

The second suspension appears to have been for fighting. In a text message exchange extracted from his cellphone, dated November 7 2011, he was asked by a correspondent "You Didn't Go to School?" He replied:

Naw I'm suspended
SMH
Just chill
Wat Yhuu Did?
Fightn

In another exchange two weeks later (November 21 2011) he commented that he was "Tired nd sore": His correspondent replied:

In a text message sent the follow day he commented on his loss in the first round: "Yea cause he got mo hits cause in da 1st round he had me on da ground nd i couldn't do ntn." That evening he told a correspondent via text message that his mother had just told him she was kicking him out the house:

My mom just told me i gotta move wit my dad
So what does that mean?
She just kicked me out :(
Stop lying
I promise u my mom just told me i gotta move
What did you do now?
Da police caught me outta skool
Lol really dude?
Yea
So you just turning into a lil hoodlum
No not at all
Yes
U a hoodlum
Naw I'm a gangsta
Lies.com...lol u soft
Boy don't get one planted in your chest
Lol im scared
You should be

This decision was given effect the following month and he moved in with his father on December 22 2011. In mid-February 2012 Trayvon Martin was again suspended (until the 29th), after being bust at school with a marijuana pipe and a baggie with marijuana residue in it. On Tuesday February 21 2012 he was sent by bus to Orlando to stay with Brandy Green and her son Chad in the Retreat at Twin Lakes. He took marijuana with him, which he smuggled on his person.

Thus, although the Martin family's initial testimony about Trayvon's good character had done much to generate public sympathy for their cause, a huge amount of evidence subsequently emerged painting a very different picture. Significantly, the prosecution fought to exclude from trial any reference to Trayvon Martin's school records, his suspensions, marijuana use, involvement in fights, among other things, as this would all "prejudice the jury" against him.

When Martin's family members testified at trial prosecutors were careful not to speak positively about Trayvon as this would have allowed the defence to unleash a flood of evidence in rebuttal. The prosecution also argued against the presentation to the jury of the post-mortem toxicology report which showed that Martin had some traces of THC and its metabolite in his blood after the shooting. (Although the judge ruled in favour of the defence, and permitted the introduction of this evidence, they eventually chose not to present it.)...

These changes in the US probably contribute to some new statistics cited on O'Reilly last night, showing only 22% of Americans satisfied with how things are going in the US. Kirsten Powell stated that the economy was to blame. O'Reilly contended that more than the economy was causing the discontent, but cited the direction of the country.

I believe thinking people see attempts to ramrod Zimmerman, the "workplace violence" at Ft Hood plus so many examples of the craziness in our country and are indeed discontented.

I'm hoping that a large enough percentage of the population get totally fed up with all the PC bullshit to finally take a stand. Maybe something as stupid as Oprah whining about not being able to view on her time table the $38k purse wakes people up to the current insanity.

‎" To the world you are just one more person, but to a rescued pet, you are the world.""A Nation of Sheep Breeds a Government of Wolves!"

This ranks up there with the treatment of Joe the Plumber. After his incident with Obama, the MSM spent countless hours vetting him out because he dared to challenge their potential messiah instead of vetting Obama out. In this case, all the attention is turned to Zimmerman's alleged racism and not one iota was paid to Martin's passed behavior. In fact, they went out of their way to portray him as a sweet, innocent little tween boy instead of the gangsta wannabe that he really was.

The American Left: Where everything is politics and politics is everything.

Lawrence O'Donnell has yet to apologize for lying about the 911 audio, claiming that Zimmerman called Martin a neger, and all the other lies he told.

Who is holding these "journalists" accountable for the fact that they lied about Zimmerman, manipulated information and public opinion, pandered to race baiters, and then refused to accept the verdict?

...More than 100 people gathered at the Greater Union First Baptist Church in DeLand on Tuesday to voice their support for a petition. That petition is one that's demanding the state attorney's office charge the former officer who killed Marlon Brown, and they want those charges brought by the end of September.

Attorney Benjamin Crump joined the packed church, demanding criminal charges against James Harris, who has since been fired from the Deland Police Department.

"There's a videotape, so we will get to see that video tape eventually," Crump said. "We think the video tape will tell us what happened that night."

The dash cam video from Harris' patrol car, along with radio transmissions and all evidence gathered by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in their two month investigation, has been handed over to the state attorney's office for review....

Here's the original article:

...Marlon Brown was killed in the incident, which occurred on May 8 after law enforcement officers tried to pull him over for not wearing a seat belt. Investigators say Brown wouldn't stop and a chase ensued with DeLand police joining. Brown jumped out of his car and ran away, troopers said.

As Harris arrived on scene, he drove more than 100 feet off the road through a backyard fence and ran over and killed Brown, troopers said. Four other passengers in Brown's vehicle were not injured.

"Although the investigation into the death of Marlon Brown hasn’t been concluded, I am aware of certain facts surrounding the case," Ridgeway said in a prepared statement. "Based on the totality of the circumstances and facts that I continually learned through the process of the investigation, I have now reached a threshold of knowledge where I feel compelled to take immediate action."

It's not known why Brown fled police, but troopers said he was driving with a suspended license.

Florida Highway Patrol is still investigating the traffic accident....

Now ordinarily, I wouldn't side with the police here. I think what they did for a seat belt violation and a suspended license was ridiculous. But knowing Crump is involved, I suspect there's more to the story than what we've been told.